How Pumpkin Fro-Yo Healed My Football Wounds

This weekend was equal doses of relaxation and fun. If any of you are football fans, I hope you catched the Giants-Redskins game. Even though I watched my beloved Redskins lose in a nail-biting finish (arghhh, so frustrating), it was a competitive and exciting game despite the continuous turnovers. Also, the Jets-Patriots game was crazy!

How was your weekend? Any football fans reading out there? Part of why I love autumn so much is because Sundays are always filled with great friends and food coming together for football!

While football watching, I enjoyed a Brooklyn Lager and a basket of sweet potato fries:

When my team lost, I walked aimlessly, reeling from disappointment and looking for consolation…that’s when my friends and I saw that one of my favorite frozen yogurt shops had pumpkin as a featured flavor for the day. Shout out to the god(esses) of destiny! Only divine intervention could have brought me pumpkin fro-yo right after a stinging football loss.

That, my friends, was an incredibly delicious combo of pumpkin flavored frozen yogurt topped with an apple pie crust topping. I could not stop raving about it and am still thinking about it. I can’t remember exactly what the topping consists of but basically it’s an apple pie crust with chunks of apple, caramelized and crunchy pie crust-like crumbles. Dying here, just thinking about it. Yeah, going to have to make a few more trips there this fall🙂

October Yoga Challenge Week 3

It’s Week 3 (already?!) of the October Yoga Challenge. Thanks Courtney (visit her great blog at Sweet Tooth Sweet Life) for hosting the challenge!

My goal this week was to complete 3 yoga sessions. I didn’t exactly meet my goal. I completed 2 yoga sessions, but hey, it was still better than last week.

Session 1: 75 minute PowerYoga Class at a local studio

This was good but not as great as I’ve experienced previously from this studio. The instructors switched recently, and I really missed the crazy, neurotic energy of the former instructor. I also thought some of the movement combos were strange, not in a cool, exciting-never-done-that-but-now-i-want-to-do-it-all-the-time kind of way, but in an odd way that had my muscles straining a bit too much. It was a decent workout, nonetheless.

Session 2: 30 minute session on my own

I like controlling the pace when I am feeling more like a zen-ish type session. Lots of forward and back bends, modified pigeons (my hamstrings are tight), and shavasana. Certainly not the most sweat-inducing but I think I was craving the clarity of a good yoga session more than its physiological effects.

Fall Fitness Goals

My goal for this upcoming, and the last, week of the Yoga Challenge is to complete 3 quality yoga sessions. I’ve been stagnant in my yoga practice lately. My progression hasn’t been as great as I’d have liked, and I feel as if I haven’t challenged myself to move past my comfort level. I want to commit to not only doing yoga more frequently, but also to be aware of the quality of the yoga that I do practice. I want to challenge my body with poses of greater difficulty, so that I can grow stronger, more flexible, and maybe even achieve some crazy side-crow poses soon:

In addition to my yogi ambitions, I am also committing myself again to running. I don’t know if there’s any one specific thing that’s prompted my urge to start up again but I really miss the physical challenge and euphoric highs achieved through running. I used to run frequently a while ago but was sidelined by a hip injury from overuse. I was never the fastest runner but I found myself improving markedly after practice and hard work. Perhaps it was too much, too soon for my body because my hips were feeling it.

After a few months off, my hip felt much, much better. However, by the time I felt 100 percent again, I was consumed by work and important life commitments and responsibilities. Running wasn’t a priority for me. When I worked out, I opted for strength sessions or lighter cardio sessions where I could multi-task (I studied while working out to maximize my time and efficiency). I’ve run pretty sporadically since then. The truth is, after those strenuous work and life commitments ended, I just haven’t been motivated enough to make it a part of my routine once again. However, that incredible endorphin release is something I often crave. Honestly, no other workout gives me the same kind of excitement and feeling. Yoga is up there, but it gives me an entirely different, but still incredible, sense of excitement and accomplishment.

I know it is already mid-October but resolutions aren’t (or shouldn’t be, at least) arbitrarily tied to the calendar year. So, I find myself re-committing to running. It also helps that I have a pretty new running toy. To make these vague fitness goals more concrete, my fall fitness goals are:

1) YOGA

Immediate: Practice at least one high-quality yoga session a week in which I at least try new poses or challenge my body to move forward, beyond my comfort level. This, obviously, can be in addition to “easier” weekly yoga sessions.

Long-Term: Be able to do a headstand and side-crow poses; build shoulder and core strength.

2) RUNNING

Immediate: Run three to four times a week. Once that becomes routine, my next step is to increase mileage and incorporate speedwork to improve performance.

Long-Term: Going to sign up for a race in the spring! I am not a racer. Although I used to run, it was recreational more than anything. I was never that fast of a runner, and never really ran a race.

What are your fall fitness goals?

How do you push past a workout rut? How do you motivate yourself or plan to push through a fitness plateau?

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8 thoughts on “How Pumpkin Fro-Yo Healed My Football Wounds”

Love your long-term goal! I have no doubt that you’ll be able to run a race, I’m not the fastest runner either and I just completed my 9th half marathon-addicting! When I feel unmotivated to workout, sometimes it’s my body telling me to take a few days off. Then I jump right back into things🙂

These sound like excellent goals! Yoga + running= awesomeness (yoga somehow stretches out those exact spots that gets tight while running. Plus, I feel like all the balance postures help keep the core strong and to keep from tripping).
YOWZA, that yogurt sounds (and looks) out-of-this-world good!

That is a great fitness goal. I can relate to seasonal fitness…why brave the cold to workout when you can hide under cute bulky sweaters and parkas? Setting a goal is always the first step to achieving it!

About Me

A fitness enthusiast with a propensity for indulgences. Balancing a healthy vegetarian-friendly lifestyle amidst the many temptations in NYC is not easy but I try anyway! I'm a novice runner training for my first race in the Spring of 2013. Follow me as I run, dine and learn to love the world around me.